Like Clockwork
by offlikeadirtyshirt
Summary: What happens when the Curtis children, Darry, Pony, Soda, and Isabelle encounter death of their parents and beloved sister? Most of all, how will Isabelle handle being the only girl in the family's mess of friends? Everything happend like clockwork.
1. Everything's Gonna Be Alright

**Disclaimer:** I don't own The Outsiders. Blah, Blah, Blah. (:

Fifteen year old twin sisters, Isabelle and Amanda never got along. In fact, right now they're fighting over a pair of shoes that both of them want to wear to school.

"But they're mine! Mom got me them for Christmas, just wear your red ones." Amanda shouted at me, Isabelle. I don't know, to me I always thought that Mom and Dad favored Amanda more than me. Each year at Christmas she'd get one more present than me. Same with our birthday. I never could stand her, even from the time we were toddlers! The only memories I have of her and me from that age were me throwing bottles at her face. Wonderful, wonderful memories. I got so fed up with her that when she wasn't looking, I took the shoes, ran to the nearest room and locked the door.

I could hear her having a fit and running down to Mom and Dad. I rolled my eyes and turned around to see Soda sound asleep in his bed. I walked over and shook him to get up; he had school, too. He finally got up and shooed me out of his room, even though I tried to explain to him that it would be a death match as soon as I walked out of his room, I don't think it bothered him much, though. Seeing as though half of his brain was still asleep.

I reluctantly walked out of his room and headed to my room, Amanda was in there putting on the red shoes that she told me to put on. I plastered a grin on my face and put _her_ shoes on. Later when we got to school, Amanda went over to her friends, and I walked over to the first familiar faces I saw, Two-Bit and Steve. Of course I was with Soda, so Steve had to be nice to me. I really don't know why he didn't like me. I think it was because I gave him that ridiculously hideous nose of his when he and the gang were daring him to kiss me. I punched him. I guess that's a pretty good reason not to like somebody.

We started small talk for about ten minutes till the second bell rang, then we all headed to homeroom. Ponyboy and Amanda were both in my homeroom because we were all freshman; seeing as though Pony skipped a grade and our last names were next to each other. I talked to some random kids who sat around me. Occasionally I'd ask Ponyboy if we had homework in certain subjects. Amanda was talking to some of her friends. Then the bell rang and we all headed off to first period.

When school was over, Soda gave Pony, me, and Amanda a ride home. Steve took Two-Bit home because his car wouldn't start. When we got home, the day was extremely uneventful. I actually decided to do my homework of all things. I got stuck on geometry and went to Pony's room to ask for help. While I was in there, I heard Mom and Dad call up the steps to tell us that they were going to the grocery with Amanda and that they'd be back in a half hour. Pony and I thought it was no big deal, so when we were done with our homework, we went downstairs and watched re-runs of _I Love Lucy_. After about five episodes it crossed my mind that Mom, Dad, and Amanda still weren't home. "They probably got stuck in traffic, there is a football game at the school tonight." Ponyboy tried to convince me, and I guess then it worked.

I went to go bug Soda who was in his room, making his best effort to finish his homework. "What are we going to do for dinner?" I asked, making him jump. "I dunno. Go ask Mom and Dad." He said, trying to shoo me away. "They're not home, yet." I told him, he looked up. "Then go ask Darry, I'm trying to study for my exams." So I guess he wasn't just doing his homework. But I really wanted dinner, "Darry's not home yet, either." I could tell he was getting aggravated. I don't know what was with him, lately. He's been acting like a stick of dynamite that's about to explode. "Okay. Fine, I'll make dinner tonight, and let you study." He gave a small smile, "Thanks. Oh, hey. Do you know how to simplify fractions? I forgot all that stuff." He asked and I explained it to him then went to make dinner; corndogs and french fries. Not your typical dinner, but I was really the only thing I could make.

Darry came home right when I was taking the fries out of the oven. "Sorry it took me so long to get home. Some idiot crashed into the train over there off of 48. Corndogs and fries?" He asked, "Why didn't Mom or Dad cook?" He asked. I took off my oven mitt and explained how they went to the grocery store about three hours ago and still weren't home. "You mean, Kale's Grocery? The one off of Route 48?" He asked, seeing as though the grocery store that was in town was closed for the week because some idiot tried robbing the place, but ended up shooting everyone in site. I occurred to me then. I nodded slowly, "What did the car look like?" I asked. Darry sat down at the table, "I don't know I was so far back I couldn't see. They got the car out of there before I crossed the railroad." Just then, the phone rang and a few people came in the front door. It was like clockwork. I went to go answer the phone, acknowledging Dally, Johnny, Steve, and Two-Bit who had come over for their annual Friday night poker game. When I picked up the phone, a real business like voice replied on the other end, "Is this the Curtis residence?" He asked. I nodded, then realized that he couldn't see it, "Yes." I said, waiting for him to say something back. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but we have some very bad news for you." I could feel my eyes bulging out of my head and all of the guys staring at me. I slammed the phone down on the receiver and began bawling. My eyes instantly met Darry's and he looked confused, all I did was nod and he seemed to understand, because he nodded profusely and slammed his hand down on the kitchen table. I ran over to my room, and the rest of the guys just stood there, dumbfounded. After all, they didn't know what was going on.

When I got to my room, I let out the biggest bloody murder scream anyone could ever belt. I heard footsteps coming down the hall to my room. I sat down on my bed and waited for the person to come into my room, and sure enough Dally came walking into my room, sat next to me and rubbed my back, telling me everything was going to be alright. I grabbed his shoulder and cried into it, I guess Darry told them what happened after I went upstairs. Dally kept telling me that everything was going to be alright. See, Dallas and I used to date each other, back when I was thirteen and he was fifteen, we'd dated for about a year, which for around here is a really long time. I broke up with him because he wanted more out of me than I was willing to give him, if you know what I mean. But we remained friends, which surprised me.

He convinced me to go to the living room. When I did, I saw that all of the guys had the worst expressions on their faces, and I think I even saw Steve shed a tear. I knew that Darry, Soda, and Pony were crying. After all, they were our parents. But they were everyone else's parents, too. And Amanda; the last thing I did with her was yell, scream, and bicker. I didn't even tell her sorry. I should have let her wear the shoes, and if I were to know that it would be her last day on Earth, I would have let her wear them. She was like a sister to all of them, and was a sister to Darry, Pony, and me.

I walked over and sat in between Soda and Steve so I could give Soda a hug, and the least unexpected thing happened. I felt Steve rub my back and whisper, "Isabelle, everything's gonna be alright."


	2. Dealing With It

AN: Yo(: Sorry I haven't updated in over a stinkin' month! So unlike me, I'm really sorry! High school's more work than I thought. Anyways, here's chapter two!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton beat me to it (:

That night I didn't get any sleep. Most of my night was spent crying my eyes out and eating our only tub of ice cream. Johnny and Steve stayed over to try and console Pony and Soda. Dally and Two-Bit went to Buck Merrill's place; they both had a hard time dealing with death. The only person that I'd called to tell was Angela. She was one of my best friends; though we were total opposites. She came over and kept on telling me that everything was going to be alright. It was nice to have a friend like her.

The next morning I acted like I was asleep when Darry woke up and checked on us. About five minutes after I did, I went down the hall to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and saw huge bags under my eyes from crying so much. I went to the phone in the living room and called Angela, "Hey, Curly. Is Angel home?" I asked her younger brother. "Yeah, hang on." He said, handing the phone to Angela, "Yeah?" She asked. "Hey, it's Isabelle. How do you get bags under your eyes to go away?" She was the person I called because out of all my friends, she was the one that went out to drink at midnight and not get home till seven in the morning. "Yeah, put a cold spoon under each eye. That should do it. Hey, Izzy? You alright?" She asked. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Well, I have to go. I'll see ya later." I hung up and walked towards the kitchen.

Darry asked me what I was doing with the spoons when I took them out of the freezer. "Angel told me that if I put them under my eyes, it makes the bags go away." I said simply. He just nodded. When I put the spoons under my eyes, I flinched. They were colder than I thought. I put them back under my eyes for about two minutes and dealt with whatever pain was sent my way. They eventually went away. When they did, I put the spoons in the sink and sat down at the kitchen table across from Darry. I watched him as he sat there and read the paper. After about two minutes he finally looked up, "Could you stop burning a hole through the paper? I'm trying to read it." I sat there and kept on staring.

I don't know why Darry didn't deal with death so badly. When our grandparent's died about three years ago, I would catch him bawling like a baby at any time. I wish he would show emotion like then.

I got up and went out to the living room and woke up Steve to tell him to get off the couch. "Kid, don't wake me up, sit on the floor." Okay, so I guess his niceness streak is gone. "Whatever." I said, shoving his shoulder into the back of the couch and walking outside. I sat on the couch and watched all the little kids play with jacks across the street. I wish I could go back to that time when everything was so simple and nothing really mattered.

I was so lost in my own head that I didn't hear someone come out and sit next to me until they tapped my shoulder. I looked back, "What do you want?" It was Steve. "I just wanted to tell you sorry for yellin' at you like that a while ago. I know you're having a tough time with all of this, but all of us are. They were like our parents, too, ya know." I rolled my eyes to try and hold back some tears, "Oh yeah, they were your parents for all of what, four years? They were mine for a good and solid fifteen!" Now I was face to face with him and he was really pissing me off. "I'm almost 100 positive that you've never lost three people all at the same time who meant that much to you! So how about you just go back to bumming off of our family and leave me alone while you're at it!" I said, walking off of the porch and down the street. I had no idea where I was going to go. I made a small detour by the park and sat on the swing that I would always swing on when Mom and Dad would take us down here when we were littler. I wiped away the tears, even though I don't have a real big reputation for being tough and stuff, you still don't want to show any sign that you're weak; it could cost you your life. I stayed at the park swinging for about an hour or two when I saw a car pull up. I knew it wasn't a Soc, the car was too trashy. I looked real hard to see who it was, but all I could make out was an elfish figure in the front seat – definitely Dallas. He parked the car on the side of the street and walked up to me.

"Hey, how you holding up?" He asked. "Fine, I guess. I mean, how are you supposed to handle this kind of thing? I dunno, I really went off on Steve earlier, then I ended up here." I explained. He nodded, "Yeah, I got ya. Do you wanna do something to get your mind off of it?" He asked, I shook my head. "I just wanna go home, okay?" "Yeah, here, let me give you a ride." He said walking towards the car. I followed him and went home.

Dallas dropped me off outside of my house and said he'd be back later. I reluctantly walked up to the door, when I opened it I saw my brothers, Steve, and Johnny all in the living room, talking about what we were going to do. I sat down next to Ponyboy with a blank expression on my face, I didn't even want to hear about the future and what was going to happen next. When I heard the words "girl's home" my head immediately shot up, "WHAT!?" "Well, I don't know what we're going to do now that Mom and Dad are gone and they're not going to let a twenty year old be the guardian of three teenagers. I'm sorry, but I think it's the only option we have." Darry explained to me. "Okay, no. You cannot make me go to some snotty boarding school place, no thanks." I said, waiting to hear what he had to say back, but instead of hearing Darry's voice, I heard Steve's. "Yeah, Darry. Those places are so strict, you know Isabelle would never survive in one of those things. Okay, if Dally, Johnny, Two-Bit, and me help you guys out with the bills and all that stuff, you promise you won't send this guys away?" Steve asked, pointing to Soda, Pony, and me. I couldn't believe that he was helping me out again. It was so unlike him to show any sort of compassion unless it was for Soda or some broad of the week.


End file.
